Do you like to be used?
Cleaned Version
Do you like it when someone tries to deceive you, manipulate you, or use you? I don’t like that one bit, and I doubt any of you do either. Yet there is someone who is doing exactly that to all of us, all the time. Satan is constantly working to deceive humanity, and most of the time we don’t even recognize it.
Jesus warned us that deception would become extremely severe in the end times:
Matthew 24:24 (CEB) “False christs and false prophets will appear, and they will offer great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even those whom God has chosen.”
I’ve already mentioned some of the ways I’ve personally experienced Satan’s interference—my internet suddenly going down, all my email accounts being disabled, my cursor jumping around or disappearing, writings vanishing right before I could send or post them, and many other things. Through all of this, I’ve learned that I can always rely on God to fix the problem. Sometimes the Lord gives me an idea to work around it; other times I simply have to wait, and the problem disappears on its own.
I’ve also experienced Satan’s deception in my thoughts. I believe the work I do here is the Lord’s work through me, but there have been moments when thoughts came to me like: What if this isn’t God’s work? What if this is Satan’s work instead? What if the Bible is just a collection of fictional stories? What if something I’m about to post could be misunderstood and used by Satan? (See the post “Satan and His Work.”)
Satan worked intensely when Yeshua Jesus entered the world as a human. He tried to get Joseph to abandon Mary because Joseph knew he wasn’t the father. Immediately after Jesus was born, Satan tried to have Him killed. He influenced Herod and those around him. He tried to deceive the magi so Herod could find the child. But God warned Joseph in dreams, leading him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt. After Herod died, Joseph was again guided in a dream to return to Israel—but not to Judea, because Satan was evidently influencing Archelaus. So Joseph took his family to Galilee, to Nazareth. All of this fulfilled prophecy.
(Matthew 1:18–2:23, CEB)
Throughout Jesus’ entire earthly life, Satan tried in many ways to stop Him from completing the mission He was sent to accomplish. If Satan had succeeded, we would have no Savior—no sinless, unblemished human to take our place.
Jesus is fully human, yet fully God. There had to be someone human (like us) but without sin (unlike us) who was worthy to take our place. God can forgive, but only a human could stand in for humanity in judgment.
Today, Satan continues working to keep people from believing in the One True Living God—the Creator of all things visible and invisible—and in Jesus Christ, the One He sent.
Jesus told us about how bad deception would get in the end times.
Matthew 24:24 Common English Bible (CEB)
24 False christs and false prophets will appear, and they will offer great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even those whom God has chosen.
Birth of Jesus
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly. 20 As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all of this took place so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled:And they will call him, Emmanuel.[a]
24 When Joseph woke up, he did just as an angel from God commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he didn’t have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. Joseph called him Jesus.
Coming of the magi
by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah,
because from you will come one who governs,
who will shepherd my people Israel.”[b]
Escape to Egypt
13 When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.” 14 Joseph got up and, during the night, took the child and his mother to Egypt. 15 He stayed there until Herod died. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I have called my son out of Egypt.[c]Murder of the Bethlehem children
16 When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. 17 This fulfilled the word spoken through Jeremiah the prophet:weeping and much grieving.
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she did not want to be comforted,
because they were no more.[d]
Return from Egypt
19 After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20 “Get up,” the angel said, “and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. Those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” 21 Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus ruled over Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee. 23 He settled in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.The whole time Jesus was here on earth as a human, Satan tried in many different ways to keep Jesus from completing all that He was sent to do. If Satan had been successful, we would not have a savior, an unblemished, sinless human to take our place.
